Ipswich‐based agency celebrates two years in business with a boost from Theo Paphitis
Cheddar Creative celebrates its second birthday in November, which has given directors Cassie Bendall, Yasmin Willis and Richard Wood a chance to reflect on what it takes to run a successful full-service agency, and more importantly, how they’ve punched above their weight to survive the all-important first two years.
Cheddar received a business boost from Retail Entrepreneur Theo Paphitis by winning ‘Small Business Sunday’ earlier in the year. Theo tweeted about Cheddar to his 500,000 Twitter followers and has invited Cassie, Yasmin and Rich to an exclusive SBS winners’ event taking place in London early next year.
The Dragon’s Den star and Ryman Stationery, Robert Dyas and Boux Avenue Chairman said: “We are thrilled to welcome new #SBS winners Cheddar Creative and offer our support to them and other small businesses here in the UK. I admire people who have this kind of passion and energy, and wish the team every success.”
The directors, who worked together previously before making the decision to “set up their own shop and do things differently”, were recently invited to join the creative hub at Unicorn Studios on Orwell Place in Ipswich. While remote working has suited the team well for the past two years, the time was right to take advantage of the co-working opportunity Unicorn Studios presents.
“Having seen other small businesses over-extend too soon, we were keen to scale our team gradually and in the most efficient way possible,” says Founder and Campaign Director Cassie Bendall. “East Anglia is home to some brilliant companies doing really interesting, innovative things in the tech and creative sectors, so we’ve built an amazing network of trusted partners. Having a permanent place in Unicorn Studios means we’ve been able to add further depth to our talent pool. Depending on the project, we can work individually or bolster our team with a wide range of skill sets as necessary – like creative Power Rangers!
“Although we’ve worked in the agency space for some time, we’re all first-time business owners so it’s been a steep learning curve. Winning some big pitches against more established agencies and having our hard work recognised by small business champion Theo Paphitis hopefully demonstrates that we’re getting it right for the most part. It’s a great feeling to have someone like Theo in our corner, spreading the word about what we do.”
